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2005: Record military spending
June 12th, 2006 at 20:31 Björn Hallberg
The annual report of Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the so called SIPRI Yearbook for 2006 is out. And the tidings they bring are not very cheerful. Increases across the spectrum, ongoing wars and various players mindlessly arming themselves for tasks they cannot foresee.
The United States remained the biggest worldwide spender, with 48% of the $1.118 trillion pie and accounted for 80% of the $33 billion increase in global spending, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said in its annual report.
Europe was the only region with a decrease in military spending, by 1.7%, especially because of western European spending cuts.
The 15 biggest spenders accounted for 84% of all expenditure.
In China, spending was $31.20 per capita, and in India, $18.50.
This compares with $1,604 of military spending for each American, and $1,430 for each Israeli, the institute said.
They are, in declining order, the United States, Britain, France, Japan, China, Germany, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Russia, India, South Korea, Canada, Australia, Spain and Israel.
Russia tries to downplay its sudden surge to the number one export position by blaming its affordable export prices. Regardless of how one does the math however, Russia and the US are way ahead of the competition and as such are indirectly the biggest threat we now face. Though the realist school of international relations (which has long prevailed among US elites) will tell you otherwise, heightened military spending has never amounted to anything positive and has preceded leviathans like Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. A study of modern military conflicts should reveal that armament and arms trading intensified difficulties and often set world powers on an irreversible course.
Entry 569 filed under: Weapons Systems. This entry was posted 2 years, 5 months ago. RSS feed for comments on this post.
No matter how much the US spends on the military, without oil for fuel the US military is dead in its tracks, all it would take is for an enemy nation to target the three supervolcanos on its soil, especially yellowstone (which is ready to blow anyway) to take down the US. The worst thing is that if enemies of the US ever did target our achilles heel the supervocanos and then put an oil blockade/embargo against us, years later any americans left would regard it as an act of mercy and heroism that freed them from the tyranny and oppression of the fascist regeme of bafoons that now hold power. As of now all americans are screwed and there is no other way out of this police state other than foriegn invasion, because the true definition of ‘freedom’ and ‘democracy’ in america is now ‘obedience’ and ’submission’.